Battery World worker Robert Williams downloaded customer’s intimate photos
A Canberra computer technician and family man has kept his job after being caught downloading intimate photos from a customer’s laptop he was meant to be repairing.
Canberra Star
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A Canberran computer technician has kept his job after downloading intimate photos from a woman’s laptop he was meant to be fixing, with the breach of privacy leaving her with “sleepless nights”.
Robert James John Morgan Williams was told in ACT Magistrates Court his sneaky downloads were a breach of trust, an act which would stay with his victim for the rest of her life.
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The court heard the victim visited Battery World in Phillip on October, 2021, to have her laptop repaired, with the 29-year-old Canberra man tasked to fix it.
According to the agreed statement of facts, Williams phoned the victim and asked for her laptop password to assist in inserting a new battery.
The victim found this was strange but sent the password to Williams anyway and was given her laptop later that month.
After she came home, the victim's partner investigated the laptop and opened its recycle bin to find several personal image files inside.
The images depicted the victim in various states of undress, which she had sent to her partner over Facebook messenger.
Police say the victim phoned Battery World and spoke to the owner who apologised.
The manager spoke to Williams with the 28-year-old confessing he went “too far” and looked at her images before deleting them, the facts say.
Investigators reached out to Williams and he was later charged.
In court on Tuesday, the victim chose to read out her victim impact statement, saying the whole situation made her “sick to her stomach”.
She said when she confronted the manager about the allegation, she was told Williams wouldn’t do that because he’s a “family man”.
The victim said the entire incident made her feel alone, stressed, and led to her suffering from “sleepless nights” and embarrassment.
Defence lawyer Sam Lynch said the offence was opportunistic and conceded it was an “invasion of privacy”, but said the password was obtained for work purposes.
The court heard Williams had a family and was able to keep his job at Battery World, with the business changing their processes after the blatant breach of privacy.
Magistrate Robert Cook said this incident would stick with the victim for the rest of their life, stating Williams couldn’t undo what had happened.
“You had one job to do, to replace the battery, but you looked at someone’s private life, you have no right to do that,” he said.
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Williams pleaded guilty to one charge of intimate observations or capturing visual data and was sentenced to a good behaviour order of 12 months.
He was then ordered to do 100 hours community service.
A conviction was recorded.
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